Seven new species of Penicillium and a new variety ofPenicillium novae-caledoniae Smith Carlos Ramirez & Angel T. Martlnez Laboratory of General and Applied Mycology, Instituto 'Jaime Ferrdn' de Microbiologia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Joaquln Costa 32, Maclrid-6, Spain Abstract Seven new species of Penicillium Link ex Fries and a new variety of Penicillium novae-caledoniae Smith are described and illustrated. Four of them have been recovered from the air in Madrid, Spain, one from beech leaves litter in a beech forest near Nancy, France, two from sandy soils in Madrid, and one from an andosol in the Spanish Province of Navarra. They clearly differ from all species of the genus described so far and are, therefore, described and proposed as new taxa: Penicillium turolense sp. nov., Penieillium murcianum sp. nov., Penicillium ovetense sp. nov., Penicillium asturianum sp. nov., Penicillium onobense sp. nov., Penieillium castellonense sp. nov., Penicillium aragonense sp. nov., and Penicillium novae- caledoniae Smith, var. album var. nov. Introduction During the course of a survey on microfungus spores in the air of Madrid, Spain, in correlation with seasonal allergies, and of simultaneous ecolog- ical studies on the fungus mycoflora carried out on different types of soils, thousand of microfungi were isolated. Among them, seven isolates of Penicillium were found to be sufficiently different from all those previously known in the literature (I-15, and 17-21) to warrant their description as new species: Penicillium aragonense sp. nov., Peni- cillium asturianum sp. nov., Penieillium castello- nense sp. nov., and Penicillium novae-caledoniae Smith, var. album var. nov. were recovered from the air, Penicillium turolense from beech leaves litter, Penicillium murcianum sp. nov., and Penicil- lium ovetense sp. nov. from sandy soils, and Penicillium onobense sp. nov. from an andosoI. Penicillium asturianum sp. nov. and PenicilBum aragonense sp. nov. appear most closely related with species classified by Raper and Thom (13) in the P.janthinellum series on account of its phialides Mycopathologia 74, 35-49 (1981). 0301 486x/81/0741-0035. Dr W. Junk Publishers, The Hague. Printed in The Netherlands. abruptly tapered to a narrow neck, its rather broadly spreading colonies, its typically divaricate penicilli, and its strongly divergent conidial chains, not tending to form columns. Penicillium onobense sp. nov. and Penicillium castellonense appear most closely related with P. brasilianum Batista et Maia, in the Divaricata- asymmetrica subsection, but they cannot be satis- factorily assigned to any welldefined series in that subsection. Penicillium murcianum sp. nov. and Penicillium turolense sp. nov. appear most closely related with species classified by Raper and Thorn(13) in the P. canescens series on account of its rather restricted growth upon most substrata, its divaricate penicilli withshortpointed phialides, and its conidial chains typically adherent in loose divergent columns. Penicillium ovetense appears most closely related with species classified by Raper and Thorn (13) in the P. nigricans series on account of its rather restricted growth upon most substrata, its conidial areas in dull, dark olive-brown shades, and its typically strongly divaricate penicilli giving rise to loose divergent columns.